How to increase the Feedback loop?
Scenario -
We are currently getting feedback from the client only during the Sprint Review meeting.
Is there any additional way through which we can increase the frequency of feedback?
Current process is -
Development and Testing is done in QA environment then Stage and finally code deployment to Prod environment.
“We are currently getting feedback from the client only during the Sprint Review meeting”.
Hi Sumit, how long are your Sprints? Have you discussed this with your Product Owner as he is the voice of your stakeholder/client? Does the development team see this as an impediment?
We are currently getting feedback from the client only during the Sprint Review meeting.
Is there any additional way through which we can increase the frequency of feedback?
The Agile Manifesto says that "Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project".
What do your team think about that? Could they collaborate with the Product Owner every day for example, and could he or she liaise with clients with similar frequency?
@Mark -
how long are your Sprints?
Sprints are of 2 week.
Does the development team see this as an impediment?
Development team thinks its 'good to have' kind of thing.
The frequency at which a client can provide feedback depends on the capabilities of the client. Are they capable of providing feedback at a more frequent interval than they are doing so today? If they are, you may be able to find ways to incorporate them. However, I would also look toward your Product Owner. The Product Owner represents the needs of the various stakeholders and should be gaining sufficient expertise and knowledge to speak on their behalf. Since the Product Owner is a member of the Scrum Team, there should be frequent (daily, if not moreso) interactions between members of the Development Team and the Product Owner.
When I used to be a Product Owner for some internal products I would often work with operations to have actual end users meet and provide feedback to the Development Team during the Sprint. Because we were in close proximity we did not have to wait until the Sprint Review to necessarily get feedback on the user experience. This saved us a ton of time in rework and gave operations a higher sense of ownership.
You can work with your development team and customer (internal or external) to create opportunities for more feedback loops outside of just the Sprint Review. The Product Owner cannot always know exactly how the users will respond or use the Product and may need to determine when he/she should just make a decision on some functionality or pull in users for more feedback. This could be in the form of A/B testing, a demo, letting end users navigate and provide feedback, etc.